Anyone who’s seen Guillermo del Toro’s recent movies—Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy movies (and a two-part The Hobbit on the way)—probably expect anything spawned by that mind to be boldly imaginative. Del Toro takes risks and he paints large while paying attention to the most meticulous details. So when del Toro teamed up with Chuck […]
Archive | October, 2009
Is your house haunted?
Horror of the “gothic” variety that occupied so much of the conversation between Byron and the Shelleys (these would be the conversations that ultimately gave rise to Frankenstein) has traditionally traded in some easily recognizable tropes. Among the most common are your haunted places. Swamps and moors are always a little scary. Graveyards and crypts, […]
ArtsWeek: Costumes and Parties
by mentalswitch Tonight, tomorrow you will see people dressed up in their Halloween finest. For your viewing pleasure I present others who are dressed up in their, well, regular party clothes. But it might as well be for Halloween, right? The following content is NSFP/W (what does NSFP mean?). Click below for more….
Zombies: The new media darlings
Zombie: Don’t worry. Only people with brains get eaten. You’re safe. They aren’t sexy. They aren’t romantic. They aren’t tragically doomed. In fact, they’re ravenous, violent, and virtually unstoppable. They ooze all sorts of bodily fluids. And they want to eat your brains. So how come zombies are getting such mainstream media treatment? As a […]
Tournament of Rock – Legends: the REM pod
Results: Surprise! The Beatles win! *ahem* Okay, so maybe we all saw that coming. Still, Zappa thumping The Beach Boys this hard for second? Interesting things happen in the battle for second, too – not that it impacts the rest of the competition, of course. The numbers: #1 The Beatles 72%; Frank Zappa 22%; #6 […]
Two very different climate disruption messages
Most people view climate disruption as a horror that we and the generations before us are about to visit upon our children and grandchildren. And there’s a great deal of truth to this view. The “civilization will end if we don’t stop global warming” approach is ultimately based on negativity, specifically on fear. But as […]
Why Bloodrock didn't make it into the TOR…
Since it’s Halloween, just thought I’d remind everyone of 70′s rock band Bloodrock, whose sole contribution to rock history is this nightmarish ditty, D.O.A.:
Life Lesson #326: Short people should not park their tall cars outside during a snow storm
By Jennifer Angliss We’ve had quite the storm here in the Denver area over the last few days. The snow started falling Tuesday evening and is just now tapering off as of early Thursday afternoon.
ArtsWeek: Close Encounters Of the Phone Kind
by mentalswitch Here is my next entry in the “Phone Artwork” series. Again, the theme here is that everything from start to finish (including taking the original picture) was done on a mobile device. And by mobile device I mean the device you use, amongst other things, as a telephone.
Scholars & Rogues & Zombies, oh my!
Got zombies on the brain? Well, it’s better than having them eat your brain, so that’s a plus. Zombies are a hot pop-cultural property these days. Woody Harrelson’s buddy movie Zombieland has been eating up theaters. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies brought Jane Austen back from the dead to become one of the year’s publishing […]
Exclusive: Pentagon's domestic propaganda program may not have been terminated
Pentagon officials won’t confirm Bush propaganda program ended
The covert Bush administration program that used retired military analysts to generate favorable wartime news coverage may not have been terminated, Raw Story has found.
Edgar Allan Poe: there's nothing like a good opening line…
Edgar Allan Poe is – despite or perhaps because of his proclivity for writing scary stories – one of our most beloved writers. Chief among Poe’s charms for the reader is his ability to grab us with a riveting opening line. As proof of Poe’s rare talent for the stunning opener, here for your Halloween […]
A Halloween appreciation of the Christmas movie The Nightmare Before Christmas
When most of us think of Halloween movies, we tend to think of horror flicks, psychological thrillers, or bizarre mind-benders. The Nightmare on Elm Street, for example, or What Lies Beneath, or 12 Monkeys. But since 1993, a stop-motion animation musical has become as much a part of American Halloween culture as any horror franchise. […]
NASA launches its first new rocket in three decades
STS-1, the first space shuttle mission, launched on April 12, 1981. At that point, the shuttle was already several years old, and the original designs stretch back to the early 1970′s. The shuttle then was designed using the same basic technology that was used to go to the Moon, and while it’s been updated several […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- S&R Nonfiction: “The Nobodies,” by Jennifer Pocock
- “See You in Hell” and the dominatrix garage: The Lost Patrol drops a new video, and btw, the CD is fantastic
- Iran’s election nuclear, but not nuked
- More light! More light! Reviewing Fred Chappell’s Brighten the Corner Where You Are
- Happy Father’s Day: "The Day Daddy Died"
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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Frank Dilatush: And while decent men argue morality and honor, war…
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A Walkaway: Then Satan must care more about justice and truth …
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RetroHound: See, I don't think it's God's judgement, it's Sata…
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Ben Leib: Beautifully penned. The desperation of the situat…
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Russ Wellen: Fundamentally, I agree with both of you. It's just…
